ProjectContextualizing Evidence for Action on Diabetes in low-resource Settings: A mixed-methods case study in Quito and Esmeraldas, Ecuador.

Researcher (PI)Lucy Anne Parker

Host Institution (HI)UNIVERSIDAD MIGUEL HERNANDEZ DE ELCHE

Call DetailsStarting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2018-STG

SummaryThe relentless rise in diabetes is one of the greatest global health emergencies of the 21st century. The increase is most pronounced in low and middle income countries where today three quarters of people with diabetes live and over 80% of the deaths attributed to non-communicable diseases occur. In light of the wealth of knowledge already available about how to tackle the problem, most major international organizations call for the adoption healthy public policies and initiatives to strengthening health systems. However, implementation of recommended action remains limited in many settings. Most evidence comes from high-income settings and may generate recommendations that cannot be successfully implemented in other settings without careful consideration and contextualization. I propose here that this “know-do” gap can be reduced by revealing the barriers to implementing evidence-based recommendations, engaging local stakeholders in developing context-led innovations and developing a tool-kit for contextualizing and implementing diabetes recommendations in low-resource settings. I plan the research in two carefully selected settings in Ecuador, with mixed-methods combining quantitative epidemiological research and qualitative methodology to generate the rich and varied knowledge that is required to trigger policy action and/or changes in care models. Furthermore, I will engage patients, community members, health workers and decision makers in the process of knowledge generation, interpretation and use. The overarching objective is hence, to explore the process by which global recommendations can be translated into context-specific, evidence-informed action for diabetes prevention in low-resource settings. The findings will support the global endeavour to bridge the global “know-do” gap, one of the most important public health challenges this century and a great opportunity for strengthening health systems and achieving health equity.

The relentless rise in diabetes is one of the greatest global health emergencies of the 21st century. The increase is most pronounced in low and middle income countries where today three quarters of people with diabetes live and over 80% of the deaths attributed to non-communicable diseases occur. In light of the wealth of knowledge already available about how to tackle the problem, most major international organizations call for the adoption healthy public policies and initiatives to strengthening health systems. However, implementation of recommended action remains limited in many settings. Most evidence comes from high-income settings and may generate recommendations that cannot be successfully implemented in other settings without careful consideration and contextualization. I propose here that this “know-do” gap can be reduced by revealing the barriers to implementing evidence-based recommendations, engaging local stakeholders in developing context-led innovations and developing a tool-kit for contextualizing and implementing diabetes recommendations in low-resource settings. I plan the research in two carefully selected settings in Ecuador, with mixed-methods combining quantitative epidemiological research and qualitative methodology to generate the rich and varied knowledge that is required to trigger policy action and/or changes in care models. Furthermore, I will engage patients, community members, health workers and decision makers in the process of knowledge generation, interpretation and use. The overarching objective is hence, to explore the process by which global recommendations can be translated into context-specific, evidence-informed action for diabetes prevention in low-resource settings. The findings will support the global endeavour to bridge the global “know-do” gap, one of the most important public health challenges this century and a great opportunity for strengthening health systems and achieving health equity.

Max ERC Funding

1 475 334 €

Duration

Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31

Project acronymCLOCK

ProjectCLIMATE ADAPTATION TO SHIFTING STOCKS

Researcher (PI)Elena Ojea

Host Institution (HI)UNIVERSIDAD DE VIGO

Call DetailsStarting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2015-STG

SummaryManagement of marine fisheries is still far from incorporating adaptation to climate change, even though global stocks are heavily overexploited and climate change is adding additional pressure to the resource. In fact, there is growing evidence that current fisheries management systems may no longer be effective under climate change, and this will translate into both ecological and socioeconomic impacts. This research project argues that the combination of fisheries management science and socio-ecological systems thinking is necessary in order to advance in fisheries adaptation to climate change. To this end, the main objectives are set to: 1) Identify and understand the new challenges raised by climate change for current sustainable fisheries management; 2) Develop a novel approach to fisheries adaptation within a socio-ecological framework; 3) Provide empirical evidence on potential solutions for the adaptation of fisheries management systems; and 4) Help introduce fisheries adaptation at the top of the regional and international adaptation policy agendas. To do this, I will combine model and simulation approaches to fisheries with specific case studies where both biophysical and economic variables will be studied an modelled, but also individuals will be given the opportunity to participate in an active way, learning from participatory methods their preferences towards adaptation and the consequences of the new scenarios climate change poses. Three potential case studies are identified for property rights over stocks, property rights over space, and Marine Reserves in two European and one international case study areas. As a result, I expect to develop a new Adaptation Framework for fisheries management that can be scalable, transferable and easily operationalized, and a set of case study examples on how to integrate theory and participatory processes with the aim of increasing social, ecological and institutional resilience to climate change.

Management of marine fisheries is still far from incorporating adaptation to climate change, even though global stocks are heavily overexploited and climate change is adding additional pressure to the resource. In fact, there is growing evidence that current fisheries management systems may no longer be effective under climate change, and this will translate into both ecological and socioeconomic impacts. This research project argues that the combination of fisheries management science and socio-ecological systems thinking is necessary in order to advance in fisheries adaptation to climate change. To this end, the main objectives are set to: 1) Identify and understand the new challenges raised by climate change for current sustainable fisheries management; 2) Develop a novel approach to fisheries adaptation within a socio-ecological framework; 3) Provide empirical evidence on potential solutions for the adaptation of fisheries management systems; and 4) Help introduce fisheries adaptation at the top of the regional and international adaptation policy agendas. To do this, I will combine model and simulation approaches to fisheries with specific case studies where both biophysical and economic variables will be studied an modelled, but also individuals will be given the opportunity to participate in an active way, learning from participatory methods their preferences towards adaptation and the consequences of the new scenarios climate change poses. Three potential case studies are identified for property rights over stocks, property rights over space, and Marine Reserves in two European and one international case study areas. As a result, I expect to develop a new Adaptation Framework for fisheries management that can be scalable, transferable and easily operationalized, and a set of case study examples on how to integrate theory and participatory processes with the aim of increasing social, ecological and institutional resilience to climate change.

SummaryThis project aims to reformulate and generalize standard theories of human health and mortality. It proposes new formal models and a systematic agenda to empirically test hypotheses that link developmental biology, epigenetics and adult human illness, disability and mortality. We seek to break new ground developing innovative formal models for illnesses and mortality, testing new hypotheses about the evolution of human health and, to the extent permitted by findings, reformulating standard theories to make them applicable to a less restrictive segment of populations than they are now. Over the past two decades there has been massive growth of research on the nature of delayed adult effects of conditions experienced in early life. This field of research is known as the Developmental Origins of Adult Health and Disease (DOHaD). Increasing evidence suggests that the mechanisms that are implicated are epigenetic and constitute an evolved adaptation selected over thousands of years to improve fitness in changing landscapes. The emergence of DOHaD is as close as we will ever come to a paradigmatic shift in the study of human health, disability and mortality. The most tantalizing possibility is that advances in our understanding of epigenetic mechanisms will shed light on pathways linking early exposures and delayed adult health thus fundamentally transforming our understanding of human illnesses and, in one fell swoop, bridge population health, epigenetics, and developmental and evolutionary biology. The overarching goal of this project is to contribute to this nascent area of study by (a) proposing new formal demographic models of health, disability and mortality; (b) empirically testing DOHaD predictions with population data; (c) testing a microsimulation model to verify DOHaD predictions about two conditions, obesity and Type 2 Diabetes, and (d) assessing the adult health, disability and mortality toll implicated by relations between early conditions, obesity and T2D.

This project aims to reformulate and generalize standard theories of human health and mortality. It proposes new formal models and a systematic agenda to empirically test hypotheses that link developmental biology, epigenetics and adult human illness, disability and mortality. We seek to break new ground developing innovative formal models for illnesses and mortality, testing new hypotheses about the evolution of human health and, to the extent permitted by findings, reformulating standard theories to make them applicable to a less restrictive segment of populations than they are now. Over the past two decades there has been massive growth of research on the nature of delayed adult effects of conditions experienced in early life. This field of research is known as the Developmental Origins of Adult Health and Disease (DOHaD). Increasing evidence suggests that the mechanisms that are implicated are epigenetic and constitute an evolved adaptation selected over thousands of years to improve fitness in changing landscapes. The emergence of DOHaD is as close as we will ever come to a paradigmatic shift in the study of human health, disability and mortality. The most tantalizing possibility is that advances in our understanding of epigenetic mechanisms will shed light on pathways linking early exposures and delayed adult health thus fundamentally transforming our understanding of human illnesses and, in one fell swoop, bridge population health, epigenetics, and developmental and evolutionary biology. The overarching goal of this project is to contribute to this nascent area of study by (a) proposing new formal demographic models of health, disability and mortality; (b) empirically testing DOHaD predictions with population data; (c) testing a microsimulation model to verify DOHaD predictions about two conditions, obesity and Type 2 Diabetes, and (d) assessing the adult health, disability and mortality toll implicated by relations between early conditions, obesity and T2D.

SummaryThis project aims to understand the role of effort in the reproduction of social inequality. While large-scale test programs like PISA have produced impressive amounts of data on the determinants of cognitive abilities, there is scant evidence on socio-economic differences in cognitive effort. Better understanding the social origins of effort pushes the frontier of knowledge on intergenerational mobility and allows improving equality of opportunity. Specifically, the aim of the project is to answer three research questions:
1. To what extent do children’s effort levels differ by parental socioeconomic background? (descriptive component).
2. Can existing disparities in effort by social background be explained by (a) the intergenerational transmission of effort from parents to children, and (b) varying motivations and differential susceptibility to incentives? (analytical component).
3. What are the best techniques to measure cognitive effort and what are the strengths and weaknesses of measures routinely used in different scientific disciplines? (methodological component).
The project will develop and exploit cutting-edge methods of effort measurement such as real-effort tasks and psychophysiological techniques like pupillometry. Their immense potential has remained untapped in inequality research thus far. Experimental data will be collected for a large sample of school-age children and their parents in Spain and Germany. Subjective effort dispositions will be further analyzed using (inter)national surveys. The triangulation of carefully chosen methodologies will provide the first reliable evidence on socioeconomic differences in effort and stimulate new research (e.g. on gender or ethnic differentials in effort). Cross-validation analysis will detect possible biases of commonly used effort measures. The research findings will provide valuable insights for educational practitioners and decisive evidence for normative debates about social inequality and policy design.

This project aims to understand the role of effort in the reproduction of social inequality. While large-scale test programs like PISA have produced impressive amounts of data on the determinants of cognitive abilities, there is scant evidence on socio-economic differences in cognitive effort. Better understanding the social origins of effort pushes the frontier of knowledge on intergenerational mobility and allows improving equality of opportunity. Specifically, the aim of the project is to answer three research questions:
1. To what extent do children’s effort levels differ by parental socioeconomic background? (descriptive component).
2. Can existing disparities in effort by social background be explained by (a) the intergenerational transmission of effort from parents to children, and (b) varying motivations and differential susceptibility to incentives? (analytical component).
3. What are the best techniques to measure cognitive effort and what are the strengths and weaknesses of measures routinely used in different scientific disciplines? (methodological component).
The project will develop and exploit cutting-edge methods of effort measurement such as real-effort tasks and psychophysiological techniques like pupillometry. Their immense potential has remained untapped in inequality research thus far. Experimental data will be collected for a large sample of school-age children and their parents in Spain and Germany. Subjective effort dispositions will be further analyzed using (inter)national surveys. The triangulation of carefully chosen methodologies will provide the first reliable evidence on socioeconomic differences in effort and stimulate new research (e.g. on gender or ethnic differentials in effort). Cross-validation analysis will detect possible biases of commonly used effort measures. The research findings will provide valuable insights for educational practitioners and decisive evidence for normative debates about social inequality and policy design.

Max ERC Funding

1 499 572 €

Duration

Start date: 2018-03-01, End date: 2023-02-28

Project acronymEnvJustice

ProjectA GLOBAL MOVEMENT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: The EJAtlas

Researcher (PI)Joan MARTÍNEZ ALIER

Host Institution (HI)UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA

Call DetailsAdvanced Grant (AdG), SH3, ERC-2015-AdG

Summary"The Environmental Justice Atlas (www.ejatlas.org) is a global database built by us, drawing on activist and academic knowledge. It maps 1500 conflicts. To improve geographical and thematic coverage it will grow to 3000 by 2019. It systematizes conflicts across 100+ fields documenting the commodities at stake, the actors involved, impacts, forms of mobilizations and outcomes allowing analyses that will lead to a general theory of ecological distribution conflicts.
We shall research the links between changes in social metabolism and resource extraction conflicts at the “commodity frontiers”. Also other questions in political ecology and social movement theory such as the effectiveness of direct action by grassroots protesters compared to institutional forms of contention. Does the involvement of different actors, e.g. indigenous groups, relate to different conflict outcomes? How often does the IUCN ally itself to ""the environmentalism of the poor""? Do mobilizations and outcomes vary across sectors (mining, hydroelectric dams, waste incinerators) according to project differences in economic and biophysical dimensions, environmental and health risks? Are conflicts on point resources (mining, oil extraction) regularly different from conflicts in agriculture? Can we track networked resistances against Western companies, compared to those from China or other countries?
Resistance to environmental damage has brought into being many local and some international EJOs pushing for alternative social transformations. We shall study the Vocabulary of Environmental Justice they deploy: climate justice, water justice, food sovereignty, biopiracy, sacrifice zones, and other terms specific to countries: Chinese “cancer villages”, Indian “sand mafias”, Brazilian “green deserts” (eucalyptus plantations). Finally, are there signs of an alliance between the Global Environmental Justice Movement and the small European movement for “prosperity without growth”, décroissance, Post-Wachstum?"

"The Environmental Justice Atlas (www.ejatlas.org) is a global database built by us, drawing on activist and academic knowledge. It maps 1500 conflicts. To improve geographical and thematic coverage it will grow to 3000 by 2019. It systematizes conflicts across 100+ fields documenting the commodities at stake, the actors involved, impacts, forms of mobilizations and outcomes allowing analyses that will lead to a general theory of ecological distribution conflicts.
We shall research the links between changes in social metabolism and resource extraction conflicts at the “commodity frontiers”. Also other questions in political ecology and social movement theory such as the effectiveness of direct action by grassroots protesters compared to institutional forms of contention. Does the involvement of different actors, e.g. indigenous groups, relate to different conflict outcomes? How often does the IUCN ally itself to ""the environmentalism of the poor""? Do mobilizations and outcomes vary across sectors (mining, hydroelectric dams, waste incinerators) according to project differences in economic and biophysical dimensions, environmental and health risks? Are conflicts on point resources (mining, oil extraction) regularly different from conflicts in agriculture? Can we track networked resistances against Western companies, compared to those from China or other countries?
Resistance to environmental damage has brought into being many local and some international EJOs pushing for alternative social transformations. We shall study the Vocabulary of Environmental Justice they deploy: climate justice, water justice, food sovereignty, biopiracy, sacrifice zones, and other terms specific to countries: Chinese “cancer villages”, Indian “sand mafias”, Brazilian “green deserts” (eucalyptus plantations). Finally, are there signs of an alliance between the Global Environmental Justice Movement and the small European movement for “prosperity without growth”, décroissance, Post-Wachstum?"

Max ERC Funding

1 910 811 €

Duration

Start date: 2016-06-01, End date: 2021-05-31

Project acronymEQUALIZE

ProjectEqualizing or disequalizing? Opposing socio-demographic determinants of the spatial distribution of welfare.

Researcher (PI)Iñaki Permanyer Ugartemendia

Host Institution (HI)CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS DEMOGRAFICOS

Call DetailsStarting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2014-STG

SummaryThis project aims to investigate the extent to which current trends in family formation, living arrangements and gender-specific education levels are related to the spatial distribution of welfare and the emergence of jobless households in contemporary societies. Inter alia, we aim to explore whether the welfare disequalizing, impoverishing and polarizing effects that are currently associated with recent patterns in assortative mating, lone parenthood and household composition are offset by an unprecedented phenomenon that is sweeping the world during the last decades: the rapid process education expansion in tandem with a reversal of the gender gap in education. The extent to which these two opposing forces occur and which of them is more influential in shaping the distribution of welfare between and within countries is among the main goals of this project. To this end, we will draw upon a variety of household surveys and the world largest sources of census microdata: the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) project and the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Centre. Because of their unparalleled geographical coverage and detail, these sources of data constitute exceptional instruments to study socio-demographic phenomena that have been vastly underutilized by the international research community. Triangulating our analysis at the micro, meso and macro levels, we will establish formal linkages between welfare distributions and its socio-demographic correlates to unveil insightful relationships that have been unsatisfactorily explored so far because of the lack of appropriately harmonized, sufficiently detailed and georeferenced datasets. We will strongly emphasize the spatial distribution of variables to unravel local patterns that might take place at highly disaggregated levels, therefore not being discernible to traditional (not as finely-grained) approaches.

This project aims to investigate the extent to which current trends in family formation, living arrangements and gender-specific education levels are related to the spatial distribution of welfare and the emergence of jobless households in contemporary societies. Inter alia, we aim to explore whether the welfare disequalizing, impoverishing and polarizing effects that are currently associated with recent patterns in assortative mating, lone parenthood and household composition are offset by an unprecedented phenomenon that is sweeping the world during the last decades: the rapid process education expansion in tandem with a reversal of the gender gap in education. The extent to which these two opposing forces occur and which of them is more influential in shaping the distribution of welfare between and within countries is among the main goals of this project. To this end, we will draw upon a variety of household surveys and the world largest sources of census microdata: the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) project and the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Centre. Because of their unparalleled geographical coverage and detail, these sources of data constitute exceptional instruments to study socio-demographic phenomena that have been vastly underutilized by the international research community. Triangulating our analysis at the micro, meso and macro levels, we will establish formal linkages between welfare distributions and its socio-demographic correlates to unveil insightful relationships that have been unsatisfactorily explored so far because of the lack of appropriately harmonized, sufficiently detailed and georeferenced datasets. We will strongly emphasize the spatial distribution of variables to unravel local patterns that might take place at highly disaggregated levels, therefore not being discernible to traditional (not as finely-grained) approaches.

Max ERC Funding

1 174 500 €

Duration

Start date: 2015-05-01, End date: 2020-04-30

Project acronymGREENLULUS

ProjectGreen Locally Unwanted Land Uses

Researcher (PI)Isabelle Michelle Sophie Anguelovski

Host Institution (HI)UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA

Call DetailsStarting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2015-STG

SummaryThis project examines the role played by the restoration and creation of environmental amenities in the redistribution of urban quality of life. Since no large-scale study has been conducted to measure if greener cities are less racially and socially equitable, I will analyze whether greening projects tend to increase environmental inequalities in 40 cities in the US and Europe and under which conditions such projects can address equity concerns. First, the study will a) develop a new method (an index) to quantify the racial and social impact of greening projects and to compare cities’ performance with each other; b) provide a spatial and quantitative analysis of neighborhood demographic, real estate, and environmental data; and c) apply the index methodology on a unique ranking of cities. Second, my research will analyze the response of private investors to the greening projects and identify the impact of new development projects proposed, approved, and implemented during or upon the completion of greening projects on the neighborhood socio-demographic characteristics. I will assess the extent to which development projects seem to encourage and/or accelerate gentrification, as such projects have been shown to be signs of residents’ exclusion. Additionally, this study will qualitatively analyze cases of community mobilization developed in response to new environmental amenities, through fieldwork in 16 critical neighborhoods (one neighborhood case per city) among the 40 cities. Last, this study will use qualitative methods to analyze the policies and measures that municipalities develop to address exclusion in “greening” neighborhoods. This groundbreaking longitudinal, systematic, in-depth, and large-scale project in the field of environmental justice will lead to a paradigm shift by hypothesizing that the social and racial inequities present in sustainability projects make green amenities Locally Unwanted Land Uses (LULUs) for poor residents and people of color.

This project examines the role played by the restoration and creation of environmental amenities in the redistribution of urban quality of life. Since no large-scale study has been conducted to measure if greener cities are less racially and socially equitable, I will analyze whether greening projects tend to increase environmental inequalities in 40 cities in the US and Europe and under which conditions such projects can address equity concerns. First, the study will a) develop a new method (an index) to quantify the racial and social impact of greening projects and to compare cities’ performance with each other; b) provide a spatial and quantitative analysis of neighborhood demographic, real estate, and environmental data; and c) apply the index methodology on a unique ranking of cities. Second, my research will analyze the response of private investors to the greening projects and identify the impact of new development projects proposed, approved, and implemented during or upon the completion of greening projects on the neighborhood socio-demographic characteristics. I will assess the extent to which development projects seem to encourage and/or accelerate gentrification, as such projects have been shown to be signs of residents’ exclusion. Additionally, this study will qualitatively analyze cases of community mobilization developed in response to new environmental amenities, through fieldwork in 16 critical neighborhoods (one neighborhood case per city) among the 40 cities. Last, this study will use qualitative methods to analyze the policies and measures that municipalities develop to address exclusion in “greening” neighborhoods. This groundbreaking longitudinal, systematic, in-depth, and large-scale project in the field of environmental justice will lead to a paradigm shift by hypothesizing that the social and racial inequities present in sustainability projects make green amenities Locally Unwanted Land Uses (LULUs) for poor residents and people of color.

Max ERC Funding

1 453 868 €

Duration

Start date: 2016-06-01, End date: 2021-05-31

Project acronymHEARTHEALTHYHOODS

ProjectSocial and Physical Urban Environment and Cardiovascular Health: The Much Needed Population Approach

Researcher (PI)Manuel Carlos Franco Tejero

Host Institution (HI)UNIVERSIDAD DE ALCALA

Call DetailsStarting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2013-StG

SummaryPrevious research has shown that the environments where we live and work have a major impact on our health. Given the economic and public health burden of cardiovascular diseases in Europe, we propose to measure specific aspects of the social and physical urban environment and to assess their contribution to cardiovascular risk. These results will provide the scientific evidence needed to develop population-wide preventive interventions.
Specifically, for this project we will assess the food, physical activity and tobacco environments of 90 neighbourhoods in Madrid, Spain, using three complementary approaches: inhabitant perceptions, geographic information systems and systematic social observation. We will then correlate these data with cardiovascular health obtained from two different sources: first, a primary care-based cohort study including 2200 persons from 90 neighbourhoods, and second, a whole-population study including every inhabitant of the targeted neighbourhoods using primary care electronic health records (>99% coverage).
The methodology of this proposal includes state-of-the-art qualitative and quantitative tools. We will combine ecometrics, geography, sociology and anthropology, to obtain a comprehensive description of the environments within which our population resides and works. In addition, the cohort study will include direct measures of cardiovascular health indicators, constituting a robust and multi-faceted source of data. The whole-population study offers the potential to have a complete portrait of the cardiovascular health of the 2.2 million inhabitants of our designated neighbourhoods. Cohort studies of this kind offer the opportunity for collaborative work, which can lead to a large and extended multidisciplinary scientific project.
This proposal offers a novel way of understanding cardiovascular health by combining a social science perspective with high-quality cardiovascular data collection within a rigorous epidemiological design.

Previous research has shown that the environments where we live and work have a major impact on our health. Given the economic and public health burden of cardiovascular diseases in Europe, we propose to measure specific aspects of the social and physical urban environment and to assess their contribution to cardiovascular risk. These results will provide the scientific evidence needed to develop population-wide preventive interventions.
Specifically, for this project we will assess the food, physical activity and tobacco environments of 90 neighbourhoods in Madrid, Spain, using three complementary approaches: inhabitant perceptions, geographic information systems and systematic social observation. We will then correlate these data with cardiovascular health obtained from two different sources: first, a primary care-based cohort study including 2200 persons from 90 neighbourhoods, and second, a whole-population study including every inhabitant of the targeted neighbourhoods using primary care electronic health records (>99% coverage).
The methodology of this proposal includes state-of-the-art qualitative and quantitative tools. We will combine ecometrics, geography, sociology and anthropology, to obtain a comprehensive description of the environments within which our population resides and works. In addition, the cohort study will include direct measures of cardiovascular health indicators, constituting a robust and multi-faceted source of data. The whole-population study offers the potential to have a complete portrait of the cardiovascular health of the 2.2 million inhabitants of our designated neighbourhoods. Cohort studies of this kind offer the opportunity for collaborative work, which can lead to a large and extended multidisciplinary scientific project.
This proposal offers a novel way of understanding cardiovascular health by combining a social science perspective with high-quality cardiovascular data collection within a rigorous epidemiological design.

SummaryMuch research has shown that judgments are the products of imperfect information processing heuristics. Recently, an alternative theoretical perspective has been proposed. It emphasizes that people form judgments by observing information samples about the alternatives. Sampling-based theories can explain numerous judgment patterns such as risk aversion, overconfidence, illusory correlations, the in-group out-group bias, or social influence.
The sampling approach has illustrated how these and other important patterns of human judgments can be parsimoniously explained by assuming a common source of bias. But at least two important questions remain:
1. How do sampling explanations for judgment biases can be integrated with explanations that focus on information-processing biases in order to explain judgment patterns in naturally occurring environments?
2. What are the implications of selective information sampling for collective judgments and the distribution of beliefs and attitudes over social networks?
I set to answer these pressing questions by (1) developing integrative belief formation models that incorporate both sampling-based mechanisms and information processing-based mechanisms; (2) collecting and analyzing experimental and field data to test these integrative models and uncover how the two classes of mechanisms interact; (3) building on these insights to develop models that lead to testable predictions about collective judgments and test these predictions with field and experimental data; (4) running experiments to measure the extent to which social network driven information sampling can contribute to opinion polarization.
The project will carry novel prescriptions to limit judgment biases such as the prevalence of negative stereotypes about socially distant others or the resistance to institutional change. It will also carry prescriptions to limit the emergence of collective illusions, and contain the polarization of opinions across social groups.

Much research has shown that judgments are the products of imperfect information processing heuristics. Recently, an alternative theoretical perspective has been proposed. It emphasizes that people form judgments by observing information samples about the alternatives. Sampling-based theories can explain numerous judgment patterns such as risk aversion, overconfidence, illusory correlations, the in-group out-group bias, or social influence.
The sampling approach has illustrated how these and other important patterns of human judgments can be parsimoniously explained by assuming a common source of bias. But at least two important questions remain:
1. How do sampling explanations for judgment biases can be integrated with explanations that focus on information-processing biases in order to explain judgment patterns in naturally occurring environments?
2. What are the implications of selective information sampling for collective judgments and the distribution of beliefs and attitudes over social networks?
I set to answer these pressing questions by (1) developing integrative belief formation models that incorporate both sampling-based mechanisms and information processing-based mechanisms; (2) collecting and analyzing experimental and field data to test these integrative models and uncover how the two classes of mechanisms interact; (3) building on these insights to develop models that lead to testable predictions about collective judgments and test these predictions with field and experimental data; (4) running experiments to measure the extent to which social network driven information sampling can contribute to opinion polarization.
The project will carry novel prescriptions to limit judgment biases such as the prevalence of negative stereotypes about socially distant others or the resistance to institutional change. It will also carry prescriptions to limit the emergence of collective illusions, and contain the polarization of opinions across social groups.

Max ERC Funding

1 158 625 €

Duration

Start date: 2018-05-01, End date: 2023-04-30

Project acronymLEK

ProjectThe adaptive nature of culture. A cross-cultural analysis of the returns of Local Environmental Knowledge in three indigenous societies

Researcher (PI)Victoria Reyes García

Host Institution (HI)UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA

Call DetailsStarting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2010-StG_20091209

SummaryResearchers debate the role of culture in shaping human adaptive strategy. Some researchers suggest that the behavioural adaptations that explain the success of our species are partially cultural, i.e., cumulative and transmitted by social learning.
Others find that cultural knowledge has often resulted in maladaptive practices, loss of technologies, and societies collapse.
Despite the importance of the debate, we lack empirical, comparative, research on the mechanisms through which culture might shape human adaptation. I will collect real world data to test a pathway through which cultural knowledge might
enhance human adaptive strategy: the individual returns to culturally evolved and environment-specific knowledge. I will direct two post-docs and four PhD students who will collect six sets of comparable panel data in three foraging societies:
the Tsimane (Amazon), the Baka (Congo Basin), and the Penan (Borneo). I will use a culturally-specific but cross-culturally comparative method to assess individual local knowledge related to 1) wild edibles; 2) medicine; 3) agriculture; and 4) weather forecast. I will analyze data using instrumental variables to get rigorous estimates of the returns to knowledge on
a) own and offsprings health and b) nutritional status, and c) farming and d) foraging productivity. Data would allow me to make generalizations on 1) the returns to local environmental knowledge and 2) the conditions under which locally developed
knowledge is adaptive or ceases to be so. The ground-breaking nature of this study lies in its explicit attempt to use empirical data and a cross-cultural framework to provide a first test of the adaptive nature of culturally transmitted information, and to do so by linking cultural knowledge to individual outcomes.

Researchers debate the role of culture in shaping human adaptive strategy. Some researchers suggest that the behavioural adaptations that explain the success of our species are partially cultural, i.e., cumulative and transmitted by social learning.
Others find that cultural knowledge has often resulted in maladaptive practices, loss of technologies, and societies collapse.
Despite the importance of the debate, we lack empirical, comparative, research on the mechanisms through which culture might shape human adaptation. I will collect real world data to test a pathway through which cultural knowledge might
enhance human adaptive strategy: the individual returns to culturally evolved and environment-specific knowledge. I will direct two post-docs and four PhD students who will collect six sets of comparable panel data in three foraging societies:
the Tsimane (Amazon), the Baka (Congo Basin), and the Penan (Borneo). I will use a culturally-specific but cross-culturally comparative method to assess individual local knowledge related to 1) wild edibles; 2) medicine; 3) agriculture; and 4) weather forecast. I will analyze data using instrumental variables to get rigorous estimates of the returns to knowledge on
a) own and offsprings health and b) nutritional status, and c) farming and d) foraging productivity. Data would allow me to make generalizations on 1) the returns to local environmental knowledge and 2) the conditions under which locally developed
knowledge is adaptive or ceases to be so. The ground-breaking nature of this study lies in its explicit attempt to use empirical data and a cross-cultural framework to provide a first test of the adaptive nature of culturally transmitted information, and to do so by linking cultural knowledge to individual outcomes.